The second complete day of this thing was a bit of a lesson in just going with the flow and seeing where it takes you, even if it means thwarting your original vision and plans, especially when conditions that are beyond your control dictate those decisions.

The plan was to hook up with local photography phenom Lijah Hanley, the guy I mentioned in the last post (you MUST check out this guy’s work, and while you do, trip out on the fact that he’s still only 18…). The idea was he was going to take us to a hillside covered in cherry blossoms that was overlooking Mount Hood that he had scouted for us the week before. We had visions of pink petals falling with a snowy mountain top in the distance dancing through our heads. However, once we got there, what were ripe blossoms a week before, had already gone and morphed into white flower buds under a very gloomy sky, rendering the scene flat and unusable for our purposes. However, one innate skill photographers seem to have is relishing in improvisation, and even at age 18, Lijah led us on a journey to another location not too far away.

Since these were essentially his stomping grounds, we had Lijah take the lead and the backup destination he led us to was a field of balsam root, a variety of sunflowers, that apparently only bloom for a few weeks out of the year, so in this sense, we got lucky. We found ourselves wandering across acres of sunflower and wildflower laden hillside, capturing the very shots we needed for the project (and, of course, a few stills of my own…). After a couple of hours, we were approached by the owner of the property. Unbenownst to us, we were trespassing. (Oops. We thought that fence was to keep the elk out!) But thankfully, no one came chasing us with a shotgun, he simply expressed his wish that we ask next time, and then asked if we’d be kind enough to send him a few pictures. I snapped a quick portrait, and he was on his way. While the property owner was completely ok with us continuing to wander on his hillside, we were ready to move onto the next location, so packed up our gear and headed out as well.

After inhaling a damn tasty pepperoni and jalapeño pie at Andrew’s Pizza in Hood River, Oregon, the next stop Lijah led us to was Horsetail & Ponytail Falls along the Columbia River Gorge, essentially the borderline between Washington and Oregon. This was, not surprisingly, insanely gorgeous. Prime Pacific Northwest rainforest, replete with ferns and moss and waterfalls and pools and rivers and streams and slugs, was staring us right in the face. And it was overwhelming. Anything that was filmed in ‘The Shire,’ could EASILY have taken place in this lush chunk of Oregon country. Every single shade of green imaginable existed here, and as soon as we saw the destination Lijah was leading us to, we knew we weren’t going anywhere else today - Ponytail Falls - a waterfall that cascades over a cave that allowed you to walk behind the fall, in front of the fall, alongside the fall. The trail horseshoed around the backend of it, providing both shelter and an awesome view from the backend of a waterfall that few get to see or experience. And we certainly relished in it. Below are some of the images from this part of the journey.